Adding non-erlang modules to releases

[Sean Hinde]

On 27 Feb 2005, at 03:34, Rich Neswold wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've search through the vast amounts of Erlang documentation, but
> couldn't find an answer to this problem. Maybe someone on the list can
> help.
>
> I've put together a small Erlang application. I've set up the .app
> files and .rel file to build the boot script. The problem is that my
> application requires a port driver that I wrote and I don't know how
> to include the driver in any of the .app/.rel files. When I start my
> application with the -boot option, it appears to load and start
> everything, but fails when my app calls erl_ddll:load_driver (because
> the .so file wasn't put in the proper spot -- and I don't know what
> the "proper spot" is, since the documentation gets a little sparse
> when it comes to including port drivers in a release.)
>
> If anyone has solved this problem, I'd love to hear of the solution.
> (I also plan on going one step further and building the release tar
> file, so any hints on how to include my .so file would be even more
> appreciated!)

The common solution to this is to put the .so file in the priv 
subdirectory of the app that uses it. systools and friends have an 
option to include priv directories in the build.

code:priv_dir(app). wil then give you the location of your .so file at 
runtime.

Sean